Many people come to Christ in search of relief and liberation from their suffering This is the case of the Canaanite woman. The apostolic work that Christ does with this woman is impressive, to the point of revealing a faith that was hidden in her heart. As is sometimes the case with many of us. She uses the pedagogy of insistence with Christ. The Canaanite woman does not worship God in a temple but on a mountain and does not share the same culture as Israel, and yet Christ sets her as an example of faith.
The Gospel proposes an experience of faith as adherence to the person of Christ. This is very important. The Canaanite woman, for example, speaks of faith as a life experience. One grows up living the experience of Christ with intensity, that is why this woman believes that Christ can heal her demonized daughter. Despite the apparent obstacles that Christ presents to her, she continues to insist.
The heart of the Canaanite woman merges with that of Christ in a single act of faith. This is the path that the Gospel points out to each one of us. This woman’s faith has nothing to do with routine, nor with mediocrity, and even less with boredom. It’s a living faith, which begs. It is an energetic faith, tested by Jesus Christ himself. It is a faith in Christ that truly moves. It is a faith that breaks with their cultural and religious traditions.
The faith of the Canaanite woman has nothing to do with a weak, legalistic faith, it breaks with the schemes that we have said before, rigid. Faith always produces fruit. But the fruits are produced when there is a true conversion. To stop looking at ourselves and look at God and this is what happened to the Canaanite woman, she changed before the presence of Christ.
We too, in our prayer, in the presence of Christ, have to change so many things that distance us from Him. The first fruit was the faith that performed the miracle of his daughter’s healing. Another change or conversion in the Canaanite was her humility. She accepted the apparent rejection of Christ, drawing from her heart an unusual faith in her. Therefore, united to Christ as the Canaanite woman we will bear fruit, and the first is our conversion. That conversion has to manifest itself in our faith. That faith that moves great obstacles as Christ says. To bear fruit of conversion is the law of love, it is the law of the Gospel.
Let us never be discouraged either by our sins or by our miseries. Let us never look back, that’s what the prince of lies wants. The saints are people who have believed in the love of the Father, have humbled themselves before Christ, recognizing their weaknesses. The saints are people like us. They had a face like ours, but with a look of mercy for others. But their faith in Christ was transparent in their own face, in their gaze.
Let us ask Christ to help us behave like the Canaanite. That the dialogue between Christ and the Canaanite woman is true prayer, must be the center of our lives.
Let us allow ourselves to do his work, the work of Christ in our heart. That would be our happiness.
!["El mundo puede cambiar desde el corazón"
(Papa Francisco, Encíclica Dilexit Nos)
"El Corazón de Cristo es éxtasis, es salida, es donación, es encuentro. En él nos volvemos capaces de relacionarnos de un modo sano y feliz, y de construir en este mundo el Reino de amor y de justicia. Nuestro corazón unido al de Cristo es capaz de este milagro social.
Tomar en serio el corazón tiene consecuencias sociales. Como enseña el Concilio Vaticano II, «tenemos todos que cambiar nuestros corazones, con los ojos puestos en el orbe entero y en aquellos trabajos que todos juntos podemos llevar a cabo para que nuestra generación mejore». Porque «los desequilibrios que fatigan al mundo moderno están conectados con ese otro desequilibrio fundamental que hunde sus raíces en el corazón humano». [21] Ante los dramas del mundo, el Concilio invita a volver al corazón, explicando que el ser humano «por su interioridad es, en efecto, superior al universo entero; a esta profunda interioridad retorna cuando entra dentro de su corazón, donde Dios le aguarda, escrutador de los corazones (cf. 1 S 16,7; Jr 17,10), y donde él personalmente, bajo la mirada de Dios, decide su propio destino».
Esto no significa confiar excesivamente en nosotros mismos. Tengamos cuidado: advirtamos que nuestro corazón no es autosuficiente; es frágil y está herido. Tiene una dignidad ontológica, pero al mismo tiempo debe buscar una vida más digna. Dice también el Concilio Vaticano II que «el fermento evangélico ha despertado y despierta en el corazón del hombre esta irrefrenable exigencia de la dignidad», aunque para vivir conforme a esa dignidad no nos basta conocer el Evangelio ni cumplir mecánicamente lo que nos manda. Necesitamos el auxilio del amor divino. Acudamos al Corazón de Cristo, ese centro de su ser, que es un horno ardiente de amor divino y humano y es la mayor plenitud que puede alcanzar lo humano. Allí, en ese Corazón es donde nos reconocemos finalmente a nosotros mismos y aprendemos a amar."](https://www.idente.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
